


Leap of Faith

by memoryandmoonstone



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: (in a sense), Canon Compliant, Episode: e067-069 Story and Song Parts 1-3, F/M, Flashbacks, Fluff, Pining, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:14:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22431673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/memoryandmoonstone/pseuds/memoryandmoonstone
Summary: “I’ve got a cunning plan,” Lup says, because of course she does. Her voice is tinged with the familiar tone of her grin. “Barry, Taako, I think I know how we can get some reinforcements, and turn this whole thing around.”Even though he can’t see her face, he would recognize the look she gives him and Taako anywhere. She asks, “Do you trust me?”Her words are achingly familiar, and for the second time that day, Barry remembers.-In the moments before their last stand begins, Barry reminisces.
Relationships: Barry Bluejeans/Lup
Comments: 3
Kudos: 15





	Leap of Faith

The world is ending. 

Barry’s seen a hundred worlds end, but it’s one thing to fly away on the Starblaster, Light in tow or not, and another matter entirely to be on the ground with no escape plan as The Hunger invades. Even standing on the moon base, miles above the ground, he can almost feel the ground quake with every step of the four Judges in their final march, and he sees the world stretching out below them, leeched of its color, its people blind and helpless against the approaching armies. The wind is still and the air is stagnant, dry, and suffocating. Maybe this really is the end of the line, he thinks, just when he got his family back, and for the first time in a very long while, Barry is well and truly afraid. 

But the claws of anxiety around his heart loosen as he hears Magnus and Taako speak, and he follows their gazes to Lup. He sees the flash of too-sharp teeth from beneath her deep cowl. She’s smiling. 

“I’ve got a cunning plan,” Lup says, because of course she does. Her voice is tinged with the familiar tone of her grin. “Barry, Taako, I think I know how we can get some reinforcements, and turn this whole thing around.”

Even though he can’t see her face, he would recognize the look she gives him and Taako anywhere. She asks, “Do you trust me?”

Her words are achingly familiar, and for the second time that day, Barry remembers. 

\- 

“Do you trust me?”

“I really shouldn’t. You’re trying to convince me to jump off a cliff.”

“ _Barold_ ,” Lup drawls. “C’mon! Live a little! I’ll just cast Feather Fall on both of us when we’re near the bottom, you’ll be fine.”

Barry peers over the edge of the sharp ridge with a healthy dose of skepticism. It has to be a drop of half a mile at least. He can barely see what even lies in the valley below through the thick mist the waterfall is throwing into the air. All he can make out of what lies below is a sheet of blue, but he can hear the incredible roar of the waterfall from here, matching the noise of the rapids further along the cliff. Above them, the alien sky of this plane is darkening, and a large, ringed planet in the sky is chasing the sun to the horizon, and he thinks the view from up here is nice enough, thank you very much. “Lup, Davenport’s gonna kill us if he finds out what we’re doing.”

“Which is why he isn’t going to find out,” she replies with a grin. “Taako and I did this yesterday, and we didn’t get caught.”

He’s still skeptical, and he knows it’s written all over his face. Lup must read it, because her expression softens then, and she reaches out a hand towards him. She’s cast in the light of the sun reaching from below the long, low horizon stretching out in front of them, tinting her frame with the deep reds and purples, and there’s a glint in her eyes that stir something in his chest, and he’s thought it a thousand times, but _this time_ , he thinks, _this has to be the most beautiful she’s ever been_. 

“Come on,” she says. Her voice is soft, imploring, and he’s a weak man. “Trust me. The view down there is worth it.”

Maybe he’s a fool for taking her hand, but he does anyway. Her hand is warm and he can feel the rough calluses on her palm, and her grin widens as she laces their fingers together. “Don’t get us killed,” he says weakly.

“No promises,” she replies, and that’s definitely the opposite of reassuring, but her voice is warm and kind and he feels himself fall a little more in love with her. “On three.” He gives a very shaky nod, turns toward the cliff, and they count down together. 

“One.”

She gives his hand a gentle squeeze of reassurance.

“Two.”

He squeezes back. 

“Three!”

He can hear the smile in her voice.

And even if he dug his heels into the packed reddish earth beneath his feet, he would’ve pitched over the side anyway as she takes a running leap off the edge, dragging him along behind her. But he trusts her, so he’s half a step behind, and he holds his breath and jumps and the earth beneath his feet falls away. 

There’s a moment as long as eternity where he feels weightless, suspended, supported by Lup’s hand in his, but that feeling of security vanishes pretty quickly as his stomach drops and they start falling. There’s an absent, logical part of his brain reminding him of how gravitational acceleration works and how they’re _definitely_ going to hit terminal velocity pretty soon, but he doesn’t have a ton of mental capacity to process anything besides his eyes tearing up in the wind, and his free hand flies to his glasses to hold them on his face as air rushes past them. They’re racing downwards, falling, falling, the cliff rushing past them and the ground racing towards them. Lup’s ecstatic peals of laughter don’t quite manage to drown out his screams. The red, rocky soil of this planet rises to meet them at a rate that makes his head spin, and Barry squeezes his eyes shut and braces for a final, sickening _splat_ against the ground. 

And then, distantly, he hears Lup yelling an incantation over the maelstrom. He feels himself slow in the air, and the wind in his ears abruptly dies. 

It’s a struggle to convince his eyes to open again, but when he does, he’s greeted with an incredible sight. 

Lup was right--the valley below really is spectacular. Stretching away from the cliffs as far as his eyes can see are flowers, so small and delicate that from high above he thought they were just blades of grass, blending together into a sheet of blue. The blooms sway in the light breeze blowing through the valley, a breeze that ruffles his disheveled hair and clothes, and it’s so gentle compared to the racing winds from before. 

Then he looks downwards and gulps, because she _definitely_ waited until the last possible second to cast the spell. 

“See?” Lup says as they land lightly on the rocks below. “I didn’t kill us!”

Barry huffs and straightens his glasses and tries to pretend he wasn’t just screaming his head off. Their hands are still locked together, though it’s more of a death grip on his end. “That was way too close for comfort.”

She gives his hand a long, final squeeze and pulls away. Without that point of contact to focus on, the warmth of her hand in his to ground him, the adrenaline still surging through his bloodstream slams into him like a freight train. He wills his shaking legs not to give out under him. Her long hair is a windswept, tangled mess, and he’s sure he looks just as much worse for wear. 

“Worth it, my man,” she replies airily, not noticing his shaking (or if she does, being kind enough to ignore it), and gestures grandly to the fields before them. “Look at all of this! We need to get Lucy down here to sketch this or something.”

Lup looks out across the fields of flowers the exact shade of blue of the sky of this plane, and Barry wants to follow her gaze to the grand sight before them, but he can’t quite look away.

Maybe he’s being cliche, but despite all the sunsets and flowers and otherworldly sights they’ve seen on this journey, she’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen. To live in a time and space with her, to live in a multiverse where she is able to exist at all--where she burns as bright as all of the stars winking into existence high above them--is impossible, a one in a billion chance, and he’s lucky enough to just be able to live alongside her. He loves her. He's known this for a while, but she hasn't stopped taking his breath away. As this thought drifts into his head, his grin makes a matching pair with hers. 

\- 

Barry thought he was done being flooded with memories today, thank you very much. He’s getting a headache from it all. It isn’t until Taako’s confirmation of, “Of course,” that he’s pulled back into the present, and he feels Lup’s questioning gaze turn to him. It’s grounding. So much has changed, but she's with him again, and he feels calm. His smile still matches hers, despite everything. 

He has his family back. 

He has _her_ back. 

_Do you trust me?_ she asks, just like she asked all those years ago. 

_How could I not?_ he wants to reply. 

But the words die on his lips with a swell of emotion in his throat, so he nods instead, listens to her instructions, and watches as she pitches off the side of the moon base in a streak of red with a familiar peal of laughter that sends another ache through his chest. 

Barry turns to Taako and Magnus, still standing there, and shrugs.

“You heard the lady,” he says, and he doesn’t hesitate a second longer before he takes a running leap off the edge.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! This is the first fic I've ever properly written and published, which is, like, wild, so forgive me for not being entirely sure what to put in the end notes. I guess I'll just say that I just finished Balance a few months ago (I'm very late to the party!), and this small moment where Barry simply nods at what Lup says really struck me as a "huh, there's something interesting to dig into there" moment, and I wanted to explore it more. I hope I did this scene justice. Lup and Barry are both pretty neat. 
> 
> I've got a couple more TAZ fics in the works, though they're all pretty rough right now. I hope to publish some more work soon, though! Thanks again for reading!


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